Welcome to the Piano World Piano ForumsOver 2.5 million posts about pianos, digital pianos, and all types of keyboard instruments
Join the World's Largest Community of Piano Lovers
(it's free)
It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

Well this was during a music class as opposed to a piano session but I playing a game with 11 students which required partners....so I had to be the twelfth person[ usually I would be playing the piano]....so after a variety of explanations on the topic of 'odd & even' I asked if the youngsters [ about 4 yrs old] understood what odd and even were...one child said yes ' the first people on earth'.... that's one for the books.

My dad had a spare cow hide rug (yep, a spare) that he gave me and I put it in the piano room. It really ties the room together (movie reference, anyone?). Okay, anyways...all of my students, including my adults, said something about it when they came to the next lesson. Majority liked it.

One of my young girls (she's 7 ) walked in and yelled, "WHAT IS THAT?!" I said "it's my cow rug."

"What is it doing here?!""My dad gave it to me, I like it.""well I don't, that's just wrong. I mean, it's a cow. That's so wrong."The whole lesson she kept looking back telling me how "wrong" my rug is and she couldn't believe I had it.

The next week she comes in, "You still have that?! That's just wrong."

She got over it by the third week and now insists we sit on the cow when we work on theory.

It's so funny that the kids will notice any change made to the piano room and want to talk about it the whole lesson.

When I was a piano teacher I asked one student to write down notes during the lesson. Once he asked me how many hours of practice per day would be expected for an amateur pianist to become reasonably proficient.

When I was teaching at a music school in 2010, I got a new student (boy) who was 4 (almost 5). During one of the first few lessons, I asked him if there was a favorite tune he would like to learn on the piano. Most kids will request "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, "Mary Had a Little Lamb, etc. The 4 1/2 looks at me in all seriousness and says, "We Will, We Will, Rock You." -He said it though, more like "We Will, We Will, Wock You." I immediately burst out laughing... totally unexpected from a 4 year old! His Mom was sitting there and laughing too.

Today my 11 year old who I think should be beyond these hilarious things said something funny at his piano lesson. Last week he went to a piano camp where he was working on duets and a Mozart Sonata and a Mendelssohn song without words in a master class daily. He had 5 hours of class a day and it was pretty intense.

He went back to regular lesson today and his teacher was super excited to talk to him. He asked what the most exciting thing that happened at camp was. My 11 year old said the best thing was he bought some highlighter tape at the camp store. His teacher uses it on music and wow, now we can use it at home! Sure glad we sent him to camp for that.

A few weeks ago I was going over a new piece with a beginner student. The song ended with a C Major triad in the left hand. I explained to the 7 year old girl that she would have to play all 3 notes at the same time. She looked at me and said, "Really? Cool!"

This morning, I was introducing a new piece to an 8 year old boy. I was pointing out that even though it was in the key of C there were lots of accidentals to watch out for. As I often do, I decided to test his knowledge/recall and asked him to define the term "accidental."

Right in the middle of her lesson, a six-year-old student of mine interrupted me and asked me, "Do you ever just play the piano for fun?" "Almost every day!" I cheerfully replied, practically biting my tongue to keep myself from saying something like, "Well, 'for fun' is pretty much the only reason I play the piano!"

A few months later, another student who was near the end of Bastian level 1 really wanted to learn "Pink Clouds", which is the first song in Bastian level 4 - her brother had recently played it, and she really liked the song. After examining the song and realizing that is was not technically difficult, and that she was already familiar with the theory in the piece (i.e. 6/8, notes at the upper end of treble clef, etc. - she also plays the harp and the violin) I gave my consent, discussed the problem spots of the song and what might be hard for her, and casually mentioned that it might be a great piece for the recital coming up in two months. I asked her if she had any questions about it, and she perked up and said, "Oh, can you make the same punch as last year?"

2 quarts orange juice + 2 liters Sprite. The kids drink it all every year! (Last year I had to make two batches. They hated the carrot cake, though.) I have a sneaking suspicion that they like the party more than the recital ...

I asked a student today what key the piece was in that she just played. She correctly answered A minor. I asked her how she knew, and she said well, the key signature... "It's the cousin to C.... I mean the relative."

I introduced "Etude in C" and the 8 year old said "Don't you mean Ay-titude?" I had to laugh because this is the kid who has a major dose of "attitude". I told her that no, this one is 'etude' but she could compose her own piece and call it Ettitude.

I had a 7 year old this week tell me that she misses her little toy keyboard. (I had required a piano when she started lessons, and they gave away the toy keyboard.) She said "I could take it with me, and then flip it over and do my homework on the back."

I spent the majority of my lesson yesterday with one of my chronic-no practicers just talking about the value of practicing and making it a priority. This was followed by lots of excuses about how busy she was all the time and how she has soooo much homework, etc.

We continued our lesson, then at the end when she was packing up, she said, "Do you give guitar lessons too? I would love to learn how to play the guitar. That would give me something to do during my spare time."

_________________________
"Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured and far away." -Thoreau

I spent the majority of my lesson yesterday with one of my chronic-no practicers just talking about the value of practicing and making it a priority. This was followed by lots of excuses about how busy she was all the time and how she has soooo much homework, etc.

We continued our lesson, then at the end when she was packing up, she said, "Do you give guitar lessons too? I would love to learn how to play the guitar. That would give me something to do during my spare time."